Three Central Mass. companies pay top exec at least 100 times higher than median employee

Three Central Massachusetts companies have reported CEO pay at least 100 times that of respective companies' median employees.

TJX and CEO Ernie Herrman top the list, with Herrman's nearly $16.9 million in total compensation in 2017 coming in about 1,500 times higher than a median employee of the Framingham-based retailer.

The disclosures are part of a new rule enacted this year, part of the Dodd-Frank financial regulations passed in 2010.

According to TJX's filing, the median employee for the purposes of the disclosure was a part-time hourly retail store associate. Herrman also topped the list of Central Massachusetts highest paid CEOs, according to WBJ's research.

Michael Mahoney, CEO of Marlborough medical device maker Boston Scientific, came after, with his $13 million in 2017 compensation coming it 205 times higher than the median employee's pay of $63,696, including an annual salary of $55,105, a bonus and the company's matching contributions to a 401(k).

Christopher O'Connell, president and CEO of Milford lab equipment manufacturer Waters Corp., made $7.6 million in 2017 - 100 times higher than the company's median employee's pay of $75,696.

Pursuant to the Dodd-Frank rules, Waters excluded 291 non-U.S. employees, but did figure in about 3,700 others abroad to calculate the median employee.

Most median employees in companies researched by the WBJ made above the state's $62,000 average reported in May 2017 by the U.S. Department of Labor, including the median worker at Framingham energy efficiency firm Ameresco, who made just over $100,000 in 2017.

Ameresco President and CEO George Sakellaris made $950,000, creating a ratio of 9.5-to-1.

On the lower end, however, Oxford-based photonic laser manufacturer IPG Photonics reported a median pay of $32,676, nearly half of the state's average salary. IPG reported Chairman and CEO Valentin Gaspontsev's 2017 pay to be almost $2.3 million. That's 68 times higher than the company's median employee.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled Ernie Herrman's name.